Keep on Fighting
by StarPurpleandBlue
Summary: Ace has always wanted freedom ever since he was a child, but when something almost happens he makes a decision. He should have known better than to accept the offer. Now he lives as he's told and has a work that isn't exactly moral. However, when he has the chance to get what he wants, will he risk everything to get it for him and his brothers? Even if it can cost his life? AU
1. Prologue - Just another night of work

_**A/N**_: Hello there to everyone who's reading this! So, this idea suddenly came to me while I was listening to a song late at night and since then I had the urge to write it. I have most of this story basically planned out, I only need to think more about some parts and to figure out how the ending is going to be exactly... Anyway, I might take a while before I post the second chapter because I'd like to have such things figured out by then (or not, if I get too enthusiastic).

Well, anyway, this is an AU, so some of the characters who'll appear here may be a bit different from their usual self because of circumstances. I don't think it'll be difficult for anyone to figure out many things, but I'll do my best to try to create a bit of a mystery with some things ;)

I guess that's it. The song which seriously inspired me is called "Paradise (What about us)" by Within Temptation feat. Tarja. If anyone's curious go and listen the song, I like it a lot ^.^ Oh, and because I'm finishing this pretty late and I'm seriously tired don't mind if you find some grammar errors. I'll take a look at the text again tomorrow and try to correct it.

This chapter is basically the prologue, so the next one will probably be bigger.

Well then, go read and please review letting me know what you thought!

_Edit:_ This chapter has now been betaread by _AllHeroesWearHats_ ^.^

* * *

He was bored. Incredibly bored.

With a sigh, Ace moved to the couch in the living room which had a large window located behind it; since the apartment was located on the top floor of one of the tallest buildings there, he now had a view of most of the city. Using the back of his hand, he pushed the window until it was wide open, immediately feeling a cold winter breeze hit his face. He leaned his elbow on the sill and put his face on his hand, his expression clearly showing the boredom he was feeling.

"Whenever you're ready, Sabo..." He said in an impatient tone.

"Yes, yes, I'm coming. Just give me a minute." The reply came from one of the other rooms in the apartment. As it was night and the apartment was located on a high point, where the nocturnal noises of a big city barely arrived, both could communicate with each other easily from whichever room they were in.

Ace rolled his eyes and went back to idly watching cars passing through the streets below while waiting the blond to show up. Normally it wouldn't take that much time, which made the freckled teen suspect that they had been given more details for the job than he knew of.

The seventeen years old straightened his position on the couch and closed his eyes, clearly enjoying the breeze on his face. For a few seconds, all that his ears picked up was the sound of the wind passing over him and throwing some strands of his hair out of their place. For those few seconds, he was able to imagine himself at a place far away from where he was.

A small smile appeared on his face.

Thinking about that always brought him peace and calmness, which at that point had already turned into a technique for him to control his temper. The only other way to calm him down when he was very impatient or angry was the presence of Sabo and Luffy near him; though how at the moment, he had neither exactly close, he had to resort to the wind and the images it brought to his mind with it.

Ace's smile grew a little more when Luffy came to his mind; at this time the fourteen year old teen would already be complaining he was starving while he waited for them to return home in order to eat dinner. It was a good thing that they had a stock of snacks which Luffy could eat - it wasn't like it'd put an ending to his appetite and make him unable to eat dinner with them -, but if not, they'd probably arrive home only to find some tragedy in the kitchen, if the younger one tried to cook something, or an empty refrigerator, if he decided to eat the remnants of their last meal.

His eyes snapped open when he felt another person entering the room. His gray eyes immediately met Sabo's blue ones and, when the blond nodded, Ace smirked.

"Finally! What made the maiden take so long?" He said in a light tone as he got up and went to the other.

Sabo rolled his eyes. "The request was very specific about the message that was to be left behind. You'd know that if you actually took the time to read the request carefully," he remarked while he finished cleaning the object in his hand with a cloth. Raising it a bit and seeing it glisten in the light that was coming through the window, he nodded satisfied and put it in its sheath, it quickly being concealed by his long dark blue coat, before folding the cloth and stuffing it into one of his pockets.

Ace only shrugged when his inattention was mentioned before replying. "But don't we usually have to leave a letter?" Looking at the blond's clothes carefully, he raised his thumb in a positive sign, indicating that he had found no stains anywhere. "Nothing today."

"Neither on you." Sabo commented after looking at the other too. He smiled wryly. "We'll probably get some kind of congratulations because we are entering the high standards with all of this success rate." He shook his head slightly. "And about the request, it says that the client wanted the message to stay with the recipient _'forever and ever'_."

Ace just snorted, but not because of what Sabo said their client asked them to do, as such different requests were normal; no, it was because of the idea of being congratulated for that. "As if I care about what he'll decide to do. Who knows, maybe he'll do a happy dance because he's finally getting what he wanted."

Sabo shook his head in exasperation, a small smile on his face being the only indication that he was holding in his laughter at the thought of it. Ace had no qualms in doing exactly that.

"Oh, imagine how such a scene would be!" He gasped while laughing. "Although it'd be completely bizarre."

"Come on," Sabo put a hand on Ace's shoulder, interrupting the other's laughter. "Wasn't it you who was trying to leave as quickly as possible? I think it's a good idea to get home before Luffy finds a way to eat everything we have there."

"I refuse to have to order pizza again and have to wait a millennium for it to get there!" The freckled teen exclaimed horrified before he headed towards the door; he may love his younger brother a lot, but if he went home today and wasn't able to eat something as soon as he got there, the younger one would feel the wrath of his older brother - who also happened to have a bottomless pit for a stomach and was already hungry.

"The pizza didn't take that long," Sabo remarked even though he knew it made no difference to Ace. He turned and took one last look at the living room before narrowing his eyes when he saw the window that Ace had left open; it wasn't like that when they arrived, was it?

"Ace, are you leaving it like that?" He asked motioning with his head the window; it wasn't like he was doubting his companion, who he knew wouldn't make a stupid mistake, but he was curious.

The gray-eyed boy stopped and looked back with that same bored expression on his face. Tilting his head slightly, he let a smirk appear on his face; although he and Sabo tried to act as normal as possible, their work was already ingrained in them. So, in the end, getting something good from it wouldn't hurt, right?

"Yeah. I want to see their reaction when the only place where we could have appeared from and gotten out was apparently the window." He clarified his thoughts.

The blond mirrored his smirk. Yes, after so many years there was no way for them not to find pleasure in making others lose their time trying to understand how they did things.

"Very well then."

The two left the apartment and Ace saw Sabo lock the door carefully and in the quietest way possible. The blond took his gloves off and threw them at the other, who caught them easily and tucked them into one the pockets of his jacket. He saw Sabo look for something in one of the pockets of his own blue coat before taking a piece of folded paper and a pen from there. He opened the paper and, after uncapping the pen, put an 'x ' next to the order number.

"There. Now we just need to report in and we can go home," Sabo informed before putting the objects back to where they would be safe. Both went to the stairs and began the long descent, not worrying about being seen by security cameras on the way, as they would show no image with them to whoever sought something out of normal. After easily diverting from some securities and the porter, who was sound asleep, they left through the back of the building and mingled with the rest of the people walking on the streets that night.

The dull and bored expressions settled, respectively, on Sabo's and Ace's face, from where they would only disappear later on when they finally arrived at home and found Luffy ready to raid the fridge. Only then, when they saw the bright smile of their younger brother and his excitement at seeing them coming home, would they relax a bit.

Well, at least until the time _that phone_ rang on the next day and the whole process began again.


	2. A bad foreboding

_**A/N: **_Hi everybody! I'm back with the next chapter! So, I wanted to thank a lot everyone who reviewed, added this story to their favorites and/or alerts! You're all awesome! ;D

So, I wasn't supposed to be uploading this chapter yet :P I still have some things to figure out, though I wanted to put this up soon, so here I am! Initially, this chapter was going to be bigger because I wanted to add more things, but then I saw that it already had a good length and enough information and decided to split it in two. Now, the chapter may seem a bit slow but I needed to show these things to you guys, so have patience and in the next one you'll see more ;P I sincerely have no idea when I'm going to finish it, but I'll try to work as fast as possible.

Well, I guess that's it! Don't forget to review telling me what you thought about it! Whether it's a compliment, a constructive critic or a doubt I'll be happy to receive and answer it ^.^

Hope you enjoy!

_Edit:_ This chapter has now been betaread by _AllHeroesWearHats_ ^.^

* * *

_He sighed wearily as his hand left the other's forehead._

_"Your fever is still high..."_

_He watched as the other tried to suppress a shudder._

_"But I'm not feeling bad!"_

Liar_, he avoided saying knowing that the younger one was just saying that to try to make him feel better. He could clearly see how he was exhausted and probably eager to just go back to sleep._

_"Of course you're not." Lips pressed into a thin line. "I'll be right back. Can you stay awake till then?"_

_Brown eyes widened in surprise before a small hand moved to it could hold firmly the wrist of the older one._

_"What?! Why?! Where are you going?!"_

_"I need to get an extra blanket for you. I'll be quick."_

_"I don't need another one! Seriously! Just stay here..."_

_Another sigh passed through his lips before he decided to lie on the blankets next to the younger one, who quickly approached him to enjoy his warmth. After some hesitation, he put an arm around the younger one. A small, satisfied and pleased smile was his reward and then brown eyes closed as their owner fell asleep quickly._

_Anxious eyes watched the younger face for a while; from where he was, even without touching the other's skin, he could feel the heat of the fever._

_Another tired sigh._

_"What do I do with you, Lu?"_

* * *

A pair of gray eyes snapped open when their owner heard a small noise coming from the hallway. The young man with freckles stared at the white ceiling of his bedroom for a few more seconds before he closed his eyes in exasperation. _He never learns._ Ace thought amused before quickly getting up and standing beside his bed with his arms crossed. When he did that, the small noise that had woken him up got closer to the door of his bedroom. He waited two more seconds before it was thrown open.

"ACEE!"

The cry came from a teen with black hair who was invading the place and jumped directly on top of the bed with a big smile on his face.

"Aha! I got..." The boy stopped as he looked down and saw no sign of his older brother. "...you?"

"Nice try, but no." Ace commented before messing up the younger's hair. "Next time, try not to make noise."

"But I didn't!" Luffy replied indignantly before sitting on the bed. "Well, not before getting here."

"Really? Well, you still have to improve if you want to catch me by surprise." Ace stretched before rubbing his eyes. "I don't know why whenever Sabo asks you to wake me, up you do this."

"I still need to get back at you for the time you woke me up by tickling me," The brown-eyed boy huffed.

"Oh, right." Ace said absently while searching for clothes in the closet. "That was fun."

"Only for you!" The other remarked before one of his grins appeared on his face. "Now that you 're awake, you have to hurry up and get ready so we can eat breakfast! Oh, and then go to the terrace too."

The freckled teen just rolled his eyes and smiled; no matter how excited the fourteen years old boy was for their morning routine on weekends, food always came first.

"Yes, yes. Now let me change my clothes and I'll show up soon in the kitchen." He said to his younger brother who quickly left the room, his cries for Sabo saying that he had already awoken Ace clearly being heard even with the closed door.

As soon as he found himself alone the smile on his face disappeared, giving way to a small frown. He stripped and, ignoring the cold air hitting his skin, slowly put on his clothes, clearly lost in his thoughts. _Why did I dream about that old memory now? It's been a long while since I last dreamed of when I was a kid..._

Shaking his head, he decided to leave that for another time. He knew that whenever he started reliving old memories, something different was certainly going to happen around him - usually something bad and related to his work - and if he kept thinking about it too much he wouldn't be able to enjoy his weekend with his brothers. Besides, sooner or later he'd find out what it was, since such strange dreams were like a sixth sense that was always right about when something was going to happen. That's why it wasn't worth getting worried in advance. He'd only have to stay a little more alert, that's all.

After a quick visit to the bathroom that was connected to his room, he went to his bedside table where two cell phones were located and tucked only the white one in his pocket; he couldn't forget to bring that cell phone, even if these were technically his days off. Lastly, he verified that the two firmly attached knives which were hidden somewhere under his clothes were where they wouldn't hinder his movements before leaving his room; he probably wouldn't need them but old habits die hard, especially if the idea to be prepared at all times for anything was engraved in his mind.

Arriving in the kitchen, he saw Sabo putting silverware on the table and Luffy sitting and staring at the food in front of him with his mouth slightly open. Smiling at the scene, Ace commented while sitting down:

"You better close your mouth, Luffy. You're drooling."

The teen immediately looked up with a surprised expression on his face before he absentmindedly passed the back of his hand over his mouth; apparently, he had been too focused to notice Ace's arrival.

"I wasn't drooling, Ace!" He exclaimed when he saw no signs of saliva on his hand.

Said person just laughed in response.

A jug with what looked like orange juice was put on the table before Sabo joined them with a smile.

"Now that Sleeping Beauty has appeared we can finally eat." The blond grinned at Ace, obviously trying to provoke him.

Not disappointing, Ace opened his mouth to retort when both realized that Luffy was already attacking the food and that if they didn't start eating soon there'd be no breakfast left for them. Without another word, both brothers joined the youngest one and the rest of the meal went calmly - or at least as calmly as possible with those three.

Not long after, they found themselves leaving the apartment and going up the stairs of the building until they reached the top floor. There they went to a separate stair, climbed up one more floor and appeared out on the terrace.

Luffy immediately ran to the edge, leaned on the railing - put there so nobody would fall – and looked at the view they had of the city with a big smile. At a slower pace, both Ace and Sabo joined their brother and simply stood there, enjoying the peace and tranquility they felt at the moment.

This lasted for a few more minutes until Luffy abruptly stepped back and, with a huge grin, looked at his brothers with anxiety written on his face.

"We can start, right?" He asked.

Ace raised an eyebrow. "You're really excited today."

"Of course I am!" The other replied throwing his arms up. "On the last few weekends you haven't trained with me because of your work! Besides, you banned me from sparring with someone at school, so it's been a long time since I last fought someone! I'm tired of having to train here alone!

Sabo just laughed at Luffy's indignation. "Alright then. You two can start today." With that, the blond moved away from them and sat down quietly.

"YOSH!" Luffy exclaimed putting some distance between him and Ace before taking off his coat and throwing it on the floor.

The boy with freckles just shook his head at the enthusiasm of his brother. It really had been a long time since they had last sparred and with himself and Sabo being the only ones against whom he fought, it wasn't surprising that he was restless; Luffy really enjoyed training with them.

Repeating the younger's action, Ace discreetly checked whether the knives weren't in position that could end up hurting his brother before preparing his position.

"Try not to forget everything we taught you." Sabo advised Luffy.

"Right, right, I know that." Luffy rolled his eyes before also getting ready, his fists already closed.

A few seconds passed in silence while Ace and Luffy stared at each other until the cry of "Go!" from Sabo put Luffy in motion.

In the blink of an eye he was already right in front of Ace, an arm pulled back with a closed fist; the amazing speed of the dark haired boy would be enough to leave most surprised long enough for Luffy to hit them. However, Ace just rolled his eyes mentally. _Of course he'd choose to start like that._

Contracting his muscles, he prepared to dodge the punch only to change his action at the last second and barely deviate from one leg that came trailing along the floor, which had the objective to trip him, and two punches directed at his chest.

With a smirk appearing on his face, Ace used his knee to hit Luffy's belly, leaving the younger teen breathless for a moment and barely being able to block the punch that came after him.

Luffy continued with a handful of punches, all of which were either dodged or blocked easily. He jumped back to avoid being hit by another attack before shooting forward and trying to strike again.

This lasted for a while until Luffy was knocked to the ground, Ace's foot on his belly preventing him from rising back again.

"And... I won." The freckled teenager remarked with a smirk; he had forgotten how much he liked these trainings they did on weekends.

"Shishishi!" Luffy just laughed as an answer to that, his smile not having left his face for one second. "Yeah! But next time I'll definitely beat you!"

"You still have to improve a lot more before being able to defeat me," Ace sneered slightly as he helped his younger brother get up.

"That's true." Sabo reaffirmed as he approached them. "But you're much better now, Luffy! The time you've spent training alone is taking effect, though you still need more agility in your movements."

Luffy beamed before nodding vigorously; always after sparring against one of the brothers, the other one gave Luffy some advice on what he should improve to become stronger. It had been four years since they had begun to train like this and since then Luffy had progressed a lot. At that point, both Sabo and Ace were sure the younger one could take care of himself in case he got himself in some kind of problem, which was bound to happen eventually seeing how Luffy could be a trouble magnet sometimes. He was just not good enough against his brothers, but that was to be expected since both had had a much more rigorous training.

Ace observed with a rare serene smile as Sabo continued telling Luffy what he should and shouldn't do next time; that was one of the few moments in which he could relax completely.

A small noise coming from his cell phone quickly gained his attention; he had received a message.

With his expression back to its neutral state, he removed the white object from his pocket and quickly read the message that only made his mood worsen.

_Great. Right on our first day __off, they __get another __job for me,_ he thought irritated while he grabbed his coat from the floor and put it back on.

This immediately drew the attention of the other two on the terrace with him.

"Ace?" Sabo questioned and the freckled teen soon found himself being observed attentively; the blond was obviously trying to figure out what he was doing. He saw the other's blue eyes find the white cell phone still held tightly in his hand before his expression darkened slightly; he must have understood what had happened.

"Where are you going, Ace?" Luffy asked tilting his head to the side, a confused expression on his innocent face.

_And that's how it must remain. He doesn't have to get involved with anything._ The gray-eyed teen thought grimly. It was amazing how a simple message could change so abruptly his mood.

Putting on a small smile - one he knew that to his brothers would seem hollow - and began moving towards the stairs. "Nowhere important. I just have to resolve something, but I'll be back by dinner." _I hope._

"Okay then," replied the youngest teen clearly despondent because he wouldn't be able to spend more time with both of his brothers.

"See you later," Sabo said with the same smile Ace had and a wave. Their eyes crossed briefly and Ace nodded before disappearing behind the door leading to the stairs; they both knew that as Sabo hadn't also been called that it couldn't be something simple as other requests, meaning the teen with freckles had to be as wary as possible.

Sighing mentally and with his mask of boredom already set, Ace began the descent. He only hoped that wasn't going to take much of his time.

* * *

Tic. Tock. Tic. Tock. Tic. Tock.

The noise of the clock on the wall slowly marked the seconds that had passed while Ace waited.

Tapping his fingers impatiently on his knee, he looked back with narrowed eyes at the door through which he had entered; how much longer did _he_ expect Ace to keep waiting? The message was very clear on the fact that he was expected there in half an hour to get the details of the request, causing him to rush to arrive on time. There, instead of meeting his _boss_, getting the request and going to do his job, he was told he should wait for a while and was taken to a waiting room.

_Smug bastard. How much longer does he want to keep me here with nothing to do?_

However, although impatient and frustrated, Ace was still alert. He knew that to have been called on the day when he wasn't supposed to be working had to have some reason. It wasn't like _him_ to do unnecessary things, which meant that this would bother Ace somehow or would teach him a lesson. _Damned sadist with power..._ Ace sighed mentally.

Looking around the room he was in, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Some chairs and sofas were distributed around it and a small coffee table with many papers arranged upon it was in the center; on the walls there was only an analog clock still marking time and a large window in the corner. This caused the freckled teen to grimace; he didn't have at the moment the patience to deal with the mental game that his _boss_ had created this time. Why couldn't he just take the damn request, go kill someone and go back home?

Tic. Tock. Tic. Tock.

Ace rubbed his temple; at least he was going to earn an extra money with this.

Inspecting the waiting room again, the teenager with freckles finally saw something that caught his attention.

Almost covered by the other papers scattered on the coffee table, there was one in particular with red edges. Narrowing his eyes, Ace tried to see what was in that paper without having to change from his comfortable position on the couch - because now that he had found what he probably wanted him to see, Ace wasn't going to give _him_ the satisfaction of later seeing the teen through the security cameras doing exactly what _he_ wanted.

A few seconds later, his eyes widened before the young man had to rebuild his mask and redirect his gaze to the other end of the room. _Shit. This can't be a good sign._

Because all papers with red edges in this company contained some invaluable information, being the record of a person written on that special one. Ace had managed to take a good look at the picture of the man that he didn't know whether was an enemy, an ally or a target of his _boss_.

He glanced at the paper again; he only needed a name. From where he was and with it being almost hidden from sight he knew he wasn't going to read any of the details of the man's record, though he at least wanted this detail since he could become a problem in Ace's life. The fact that in the upper corner of said paper was written in red "LOCATION: IN TOWN AT THE MOMENT" only reinforced that idea.

Deciding not to care if it was exactly what his _boss_ wanted him to do, the teen with freckles leaned slightly forward, just enough to catch the first name of the man.

"Mar...co." Ace muttered to himself, his eyes passing again over the picture of the blond-haired man with a weird hairstyle and half-lidded eyes. Nodding to himself, he decided to keep even more alert when he was outside. Exactly because he didn't know anything about that man meant that he had to treat him as someone dangerous; the last thing he wanted was to be caught unprepared if he met him.

A little while after the teen turned his gaze to the window, the door of the room opened and in walked a man he recognized clearly, not being, however, who he expected to see.

"Basil Hawkins..." Ace said raising an eyebrow.

"Portgas D. Ace." The other nodded as he approached the younger one. Stopping in front of the couch, he handed a folded paper to the freckled teen.

Looking at it briefly, Ace recognized it as the request he had come for.

"Why did it take so long? And why are _you_ here?" Ace questioned getting up, easily returning the cold, calculating gaze of the other.

"The boss had an appointment, so I came in his place." Was all the other man replied before turning around and heading towards the door. "It's not a difficult one, so it's expected that you return the completed request by midnight at maximum."

And with that the door was closed, leaving Ace alone in the waiting room once more.

_And so you send one of your precious Supernovas come in your place_. Ace thought annoyed. The proof that there was a reason as to why he had to wait in the room was in the fact that the other didn't reply his first question. Now all that remained was to know whether he was supposed to have seen that almost completely hidden red-edged paper or if there was something more about it all – he wouldn't put it behind his _boss_ to just make him wait there to keep him from getting back sooner to his brothers after all.

_Very well._ He began to move toward the exit. His gaze finally turned to read the request with attention, keeping the details that would be needed before he started searching where the address was written. _Let's see what your goal is this time._


End file.
